


hold fast

by kaminoko_x



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Friendship, Gen, Platonic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-01
Updated: 2017-08-11
Packaged: 2018-11-07 15:36:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11061981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaminoko_x/pseuds/kaminoko_x
Summary: Sakura grows up with "I hate you" scrawled on her foot. One of the reasons Kakashi wears his mask is to cover his soulmark. Neither know what to do with each other.Soulmate au where the first words your soulmate says to you is marked on your body.





	1. meeting

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Without You by For King & Country. 33 pages of this au have been sitting in my drive for a couple years. I wanted to finish it, or at least expand on all the notes I made. I'm trying to do something less purple prose-y and like, actual dialogue? It's a challenge. Anyways, here we go.

1.

Her first words give him very little pause, but she sits frozen as he instructs them to follow him to the roof. When her new team is settled on the side of the roof, she learns her possible-soulmate’s name: Hatake Kakashi. She mouths it quietly to herself, pondering its vague familiarity. She makes a mental note to ask her mother where she might have heard the name before.

Hatake-san seems dismissive, at best, and irritated at worst. Sakura almost thinks he is the wrong person, but he asks her to wait even as he dismisses her team. He tells the boys it’s a “kunoichi thing”, and right away, she can see the disinterest in their eyes, both of them taking off.

“Haruno Sakura,” he says slowly, as if tasting the words in his mouth.

“Hatake Kakashi,” she replies as evenly as she can, trying to ignore the fluttering of nervousness in her stomach. Hatake blinks at her. There is sharpness in his eye behind the lazy tilt of his head and his relaxed shoulders.

“Soulmate,” he says suddenly.

“Yes?” she nearly squeaks, startled. She shakes herself and tries again.

“Yes. At least- I think so? Um, mine is right here,” she says, tugging off her sandal and pulling her foot across her lap. He crouches close, humming as he pulls his hitai-ate straight. Sakura can’t quite see his other eye- a flash of red, and then Hatake-san is covering it again.

“Looks like mine,” he sighs, “And I have your words.”

“Can I see them?” she asks, curious.

He hums, eyeing her balefully, but tugs down one side of his mask. She glimpses the neat curves of “I couldn’t stop”- he pulls up his mask before she can read the entire thing, but it looks like her handwriting.

“Oh,” she says, letting out her breath. She’s not disappointed, but meeting him was rather anticlimactic- not at all like the dramas Ino adores. “That looks like mine too.”

There’s a long moment of silence. Hatake just stares at her, and suddenly she realizes that for all that he looks like an intimidating and deadly jounin, he has _no idea what to do_.

“You’re really- you aren’t what I expected,” she tries awkwardly.

“Neither are you.”

“We should go get examined by officials and registered as soulmates,” she volunteers after a moment. Then, hesitantly- “Will I be transferred to another team?”

“Let’s go to the registration office now, then,” he agrees, seeming relieved. Regulation is easy to talk about, after all. She scrambles to follow him down the stairs. “As for team assignments- I’ll be honest with you. Genin team placements are both political and practical. They may not be willing to transfer you just because we’re soulmates.”

“Political and practical?” She furrows her brows in bewilderment. “Please excuse me, Hatake-san, but- practical, Iruka-sensei explained. They’re trying to even out the teams’ strengths, so we have the top rookie, dead last, and the average student. But- political?”

“Clan politics,” he says dryly. “Terrible, messy things.”

“Oh,” Sakura says, turning the statement over in her head. “Okay. But my family’s civilian, so I’d probably get last pick in teams. I suppose the other clans all wanted- different teachers? Different teammates?”

“Something like that,” Kakashi says. “So we’ll register and the Hokage will be notified, but no promises.”

She nods, and asks, quietly hopeful, “If you’re not going to be my teacher, can I- can I still see you?”

“Maybe. If I’m still your teacher by the end of today, it’s not appropriate to meet outside of training and missions. If I’m not, I’d rather not. Not until you’re older, at least,” he says, and Sakura feels a familiar pang in her chest, one that she’s known ever since she could read “I hate you all” scrawled on her foot. But she smiles, because she’s been preparing for her soulmate’s hate for a long time, and that wasn’t outright rejection, just postponement.

 _Mature_ , she reminds herself as she fingers the end of her hitai-ate, _You are an adult now_. She takes a deep breath, lets it back out.

“Okay,” she says, and smiles even through the knot in her heart. “Training and missions or a couple of years from now. I can do that.”

* * *

“I’m so sorry, I couldn’t stop him!” Haruno says, contrite to her bones, or so her expression says. Kakashi barely pauses.

“Hmm… how should I put this… My first impression is- I hate you all!” he says cheerfully, watching her stiffen in surprise. Hmm. Not like Obito, then. He mentally makes a note to check her handwriting.

Her kanji, as it turns out, is as beautifully elegant as the writing he sees in the mirror everyday. His own chicken-scratch is all over her foot. The ninja who registers them doesn’t look at all surprised as he confirms their match.

“We’ve seen a lot of interesting matches in our time, yours is not all that strange, really,” he says, smiling reassuringly at Haruno, “I’ll be writing up that report for the Hokage, since he’s your jounin-sensei. Alright, everything else is ready to go. Take this and go get debriefed at Intel. Hatake-san, please show Haruno-chan the way. Next!”

Kakashi thanks him and makes his way out of the office, Haruno scrambling to bow to the old man and follow. She has to run a bit to keep up with Kakashi’s much longer stride. It doesn’t help that she’s on the small side for her age.

“Hatake-sensei? Why are we being sent to Intel? I was going to ask the man, but-” Haruno says.

“Doesn’t the academy teaches about soulbonds?” he asks, surprised.

“Yes, but they never said anything about Intel being involved,” Haruno says.

“Ah,” he says, “Well, you know how bond bleed happens, at least.”

“Mm-hmm,” she hums, then rattles off, “A soulbond is a unique connection between two people. Bond-bleed, a side effect of strong soul bonds, can allow partners to sense each other’s emotions. If you imagine it as a string, held at each end by a person, bond bleed is similar to one person feeling the other tug at the string. The more partners trust each other, the more likely it is that bond bleed will happen, as if multiple strings connect them. In the strongest soulbonds, bond-bleed may also manifest as sensory bleed, memory sharing, telepathy, in special cases, loss of separate identities, called ‘synchronization’.”

“Exactly,” he says. _Well, the academy did report near-eidetic memory_. “Now, imagine that one soulmate has a whole bunch of classified information in their head.”

“Oh,” she says, eyes wide, “But our bond just started, I can’t get any of that from you.”

“Not yet. But Intel will monitor our progress just in case,” he explains. Sure enough, the chuunin who’s assigned to their case tells them to report all of their bond-bleeds.

“This is standard procedure for different classification levels,” the woman explains to Haruno’s wrinkled brow, “Happens often enough with shinobi-civilian matches. This will be added to your files, and will be classified at level one due to Hatake-san’s high profile. At this point in time, you are allowed to share that you’ve met your soulmate, but not Hatake-san’s identity.”

Haruno seems reassured, so the chuunin turns on him.

“Hatake-san, I expect all of your reports _on time_ ,” she says, with that crazed-stress look in her eye that means she’s heard about the Great Umino vs. Kakashi’s Jounin-Sensei Paperwork Debacle.

“How on time is on time?” Kakashi says with an eye-smile, practically projecting an aura of harmlessness _._ The chuunin twitches slightly. Nice.

“On time means by within three days of a bond bleed if you’re in Konoha, within two days of your return if you’re not in Konoha,” the chuunin says, giving him an eye-smile back, punctuated with just the slightest bit of killing intent, “If you’re asking about deadline strictness, well. One of our newest policies here at Intel is called _Iruka-sensei-will-set-Hatake-on-fire-if-he’s-late._ Quite aptly named, don’t you think?”

“He’d have to catch me first!” Kakashi sings, and exits via the nearest window before the desk-shinobi can summon Umino to lecture him. And no matter what anyone says, it a strategic retreat, he’s not running away from a _chuunin_ , no way.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i tried to be funny, i am not funny


	2. history

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bit of background.

2.

Sakura was born with her soulmark scrawled around her right foot, looped over the top and stretching underneath the arch. When she grew big enough for her caretakers to read the narrow writing, it said, “How should I put this… my first impression is… I hate you all!”

She cried as soon as she could understand the words.  Her mother rocked her, gently rubbing her back.

“It’s only the first impression, Sa-chan. You’ll just have to win them over then, ne? Be so amazing they can’t help but like you!”

Sakura snuffled and quieted. Her mother might have been right, but that didn’t mean that Sakura felt any better about it. She tried wearing socks around the house, but outside was too hot and Ami and her friends made fun of her socks-and-sandals combination. Her mother understood though.

“You shouldn’t be running around with your soulmark bared to the world when you’re this young, anyways,” she said practically, and helped Sakura gently wrap the bottoms of her feet with thin bandages. Sakura reveled in how cool her feet look, how ninja-like, even if her forehead was too broad.

When Sakura met Ino, she was a little sad that Ino wasn’t her soulmate, because Ino was the best. They’d stay best friends no matter what.  And it was because of Ino that Sakura decided she wanted to be a shinobi. Her mother smiled and bought her shinobi sandals so she didn’t have to keep wrapping her feet. Sakura proudly wore them to every day of classes at the Academy. Sakura, Ino, and their mothers went shopping all together, and Ino helped Sakura pick out cute training clothing- a loose red qui-pao, shorts that allowed for easy movement, kunai pouches, and shruiken holders.

It was only a week into their classes at the Academy that the other girls began declaring crushes on Uchiha Sasuke. In another world, Sakura would be one of them, attempting to fit in, and Ino would follow, because she wasn’t going to lose Sakura to some arrogant Uchiha boy. But in this world, Sakura had her soulmark to hold her hopes and Ino to hold her hand, and it was enough for her.

* * *

Kakashi was born with his soulmark sloping over the baby-soft curve of his left cheek. His parents were concerned but hopeful at his “I’m so sorry, I couldn’t stop him!”. Given that Kakashi would probably be a shinobi, he could end up meeting his soulmate in some clusterfuck of a situation- or, they hoped, it might just be a hilarious accident that would make them meet.

Kakashi was mostly unconcerned. He didn’t see the point in trying to speculate either way, but leaving his soulmark out in the open always made him feel oddly vulnerable. He tried to use bandages to cover it, but they always looked odd and were a hassle to apply and reapply in field.

His mother solved his problems by surprising him with a stretchy black mask after he graduated from the academy. It was breathable, flexible, warm, and best of all, perfectly hid his soulmark. He silently enjoyed how cool he looked in it.

All of Kakashi’s team saw his mark at some point in time. Minato was first, because the day Kakashi met his genin team, Obito had brought his cat- a scraggly furball he had been trying to train like a ninken. The cat was, unfortunately, a total asshole and managed to claw both Minato and Kakashi. Rin avoided injury because the demon spawn actually liked her, heavens knew why. And then Obito said, “I’m so sorry, I couldn’t stop him!” to the team at large and Kakashi gritted his teeth and said nothing at all.

In their training sessions, Obito wouldn’t stop asking Kakashi why he always wore a mask. Kakashi tried to ignore him completely, biting his cheek to keep from retorting, but Obito managed to make him snap in just two days.

“Isn’t it kind of hard to breathe? It looks kind of stuffy and weird, just like you, Bakashi!”

“Shut up, it’s none of your business!” snapped Kakashi, and immediately he froze, waiting for Obito’s reaction.

“Woah, okay,” Obito said, hands up, “If it's really important to you, I'll back off about it, sorry.”

“Is this your idea of a joke?” Kakashi demanded.

“What?” Obito’s brow furrowed, “Joke? What do you mean?”

“I-” Kakashi cut himself off. Obito’s soulmate was Rin, he knew that, and multiple soulmates were rather rare. Obviously, Obito didn’t have another mark. One-sided soulmates weren’t common, but they weren’t unusual either. He tried to ignore the sudden pang in his chest. It was fine. He didn’t need Obito anyways.

It was only after he saw Obito scrawl out a C rank mission report that it occurred to him that Obito might not actually be his soulmate. Both Obito and Rin eyeballed him like it was odd for him to offer to hand in all of their mission reports to Minato, but gave him their reports nonetheless.

Minato startled when Kakashi burst into his apartment and slammed Obito’s report on the table in front of his dinner.

“Minato-sensei, I need your eyes,” he said.

“Uh, okay,” Minato said, “What for?”

He pointed. “I want to confirm that this writing doesn’t match my soulmark.”

“Your soulmark,” Minato repeated, looking incredulously at the paper, “And… Obito’s report.”

“Yes,” Kakashi confirmed. He hesitated, then added, “It’s important.”

“Of course,” Minato murmured, “Alright, let’s see it.”

After Minato got a good look at his mark, he said, “Well, I can say that this is definitely not Obito’s. Your soulmate has lovely handwriting, though.”

Rin was next, and she saw it because she had to treat a slash on Kakashi’s jaw. She was even polite enough to ask before hand.

“Kakashi-kun, if I need to treat a wound, I might have to pull off your mask. Are you okay with that?” Rin asked during training.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Kakashi was genuinely confused.

“Well, you do wear it every day,” Rin said, “And you never answer Obito when he asks you why. I thought you might be uncomfortable.”

“Oh,” Kakashi said, blinking, “My soulmark’s on my face, that’s all.”

Obito was, of course, the last to see it, and Kakashi would have smirked at the dead last being last at that too. Except when Obito sees it, it was because he was halfway under rocks and Kakashi was pulling down his mask so Rin could access to his eye socket.

“So that’s what you were hiding, Bakashi,” he said, smiling weakly, “You met them yet?”

“Not yet. I thought it was you,” Kakashi admitted quietly, “And that I wasn’t yours. But your scribbles looks nothing like my mark, sensei confirmed. Scared a couple years off my life.”

“Ahaha, I’ll bet,” Obito chuckled, “I think I scared Rin when we first met.”

“Shut up, you didn’t,” Rin said in such a steady way that Kakashi could tell she was doing her best not to cry, “Shut up. I love you and I’ll do this for you, but you owe me forever, idiot.”

“I already do,” Obito grunted through the pain, “For putting up with me for all this time. Universe shafted you, getting me as a soulmate.”

“Don’t say that,” Rin said, even as she carefully eased the Sharingan into Kakashi’s face, “Obito, you’re all that I needed. I’m the one who didn’t deserve you.”

Kakashi was left with a red eye that kept crying, a teammate who was barely holding together in the wake of her soulmate’s death, and the sight of his teacher’s shoulders drooping with the weight of one more death to grieve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> why do i do this to myself, also tenses suck forever and i hope i caught them all


	3. best friends

3.

Kakashi tells Gai about meeting his soulmate over takeout on Gai’s kitchen table. Gai’s eyes light up and he smiles so soft and genuine that it hurts a little.

“Congratulations, my eternal rival,” he says, “It is fortuitous that she is of Konoha and a youthful ninja as well.”

“Thanks. Yes, it’s not bad, just awkward. It’s a relief,” Kakashi says, vanishing more food so he doesn’t have to meet Gai’s gaze. His steady brightness is his way of gently reminding Kakashi to hold on to good things, but he still occasionally finds it a little hard to face.

“We must celebrate,” Gai says, eyes sparkling but face grave, because Gai takes celebrating very seriously. “Might I arrange a party or would you prefer something quiet with cake?”

Kakashi hesitates. Gai really would enjoy planning a night out, and celebrating isn’t just for Kakashi alone. “It got classified to level one. We’ll need a reason that’s unrelated to soulmates for a bigger party.”

“Our eternal rival anniversary!” Gai says instantly. Kakashi snorts. At this point, it’s Gai’s go to excuse for anything he wants to celebrate loudly, but is too personal or too classified to share with the general public.

“That’d make it our, what, fifth eternal rival anniversary this year?” Kakashi says, quirking an eyebrow.

“One must always take the opportunity to appreciate eternal rivals,” Gai says and wags a finger at him, “They’re a once in a lifetime occurrence!”

“I’m going to use that line when people ask about the party. And also when you’re nearby,” Kakashi says. It’ll be fun to let Gai run with it as loudly as he can.

“You must genjutsu a sparkling sunset behind me again,” Gai says, grinning, “It is our solemn duty as eternal rivals to support each other in youthful expression!”

“I’ll add crashing waves and palm trees this time,” Kakashi offers, and smiles when Gai laughs.

* * *

It’s been three days since they’d received their team assignments, and _finally_ Ino and Sakura can hang out. Ino face lights up when she sees Sakura pop her head into the Yamanaka flower shop.

“Dad, Sakura’s here, I’m heading out!” Ino shouts, whipping off her apron and tossing it behind the counter.

“Be safe,” he calls back. Sakura smiles at the familiar exchange.

“Ino!” she greets, then leans in close to say, “Ino, I met my soulmate.”

“Seriously? Sakura!” Ino gasps, “Congratulations! Come on, race you home and then you can tell me _everything_.”

Sakura takes off immediately, Ino hot at her heels and shouting about unfairness and _Forehead, you’re such a cheater!_

“Can’t be a cheater if I’m being a good ninja!” Sakura yells back, laughing. It feels good to run with Ino again.

Sakura beats Ino to her house, but pauses a moment too long to greet Ino’s mom in the kitchen. Ino sweeps past her with a whoop. Sakura tackles her in the hall, and then they’re on the floor wrestling each other to make it to Ino’s bedroom first.

“Don’t break anything!”

“Yes, mom!” Ino yelps as Sakura breaks her hold and scrambles ahead. Ino grabs at her ankle and Sakura falls, kicking back out at her, but Ino’s already got a grip on her calf. It’s a little too late though, because Sakura’s close enough to the bedroom to drag them forward just far enough to slap her palm on the doorpost.

“I win!” she says, collapsing to the floor with a victory punch in the air.

“Got distracted by mom again,” Ino says breathlessly, falling limp over Sakura’s legs. “You’d think I’d learn, but noooo. Next time, next time.”

“You’ve gotten better, though,” Sakura huffs to catch her breath, “Your grip stayed pretty strong even when you were talking to your mom, it’s just that you didn’t compensate enough for twisting.”

“Good to know,” Ino says and then dimples up at her at the perfect angle, all big blue eyes and soft golden hair framing her face, “Pull me to my room? Please?”

“Wow,” Sakura says, but detangles herself and stands anyways, “Don’t even try to pull that look, I know you.”

She dumps Ino on her bed and flops down to sit next to her. Ino rolls to face her. “Alright, before soulmate stories, gimme a life update, quick!”

“Barely scraped by the jounin-sensei test, ugh,” Sakura says and grimaces, “Nobody in the academy ever said anything about it. Your team passed too, right?”

“Yeah, but Shika complained so much, oh my god. Asuma-sensei made us do a bunch of teamwork exercises but we’ve trained together a lot, so it was fine,” Ino sighs and prompts, “Yours sounds like a story. I was kind of worried since you’ve got Naruto and Sasuke, and they fight like an alley cat and a stray mutt whenever they do anything official.”

“Pretty sure it was almost a fluke. Kakashi-sensei didn’t even tell us it was a teamwork test, because apparently, part of the test is figuring out that it was a teamwork test,” Sakura says, rolling her eyes, “It was a disaster. Naruto ended up tied to a log without lunch. We only made it through because Sasuke gave Naruto food against orders, and Kakashi-sensei decided that was teamwork.”

“Really?” Ino frowns, “I mean, it’s good you passed, but like, how does sharing food count as teamwork?”

“Yeah, I don’t know. Maybe he just didn’t know about how kids are at the academy these days?” Sakura says, “I mean, sharing food without the teacher noticing is practically a rite of passage these days. Kakashi-sensei only noticed because Sasuke got sloppy and there was rice on Naruto’s face.”

“What, seriously?” Ino says, taken aback, “Okay, first of all, that’s so lucky. Sakura, you were actually so lucky, how the hell. Also, that idiot - like, if Naruto was tied to a log without free hands, then it was totally Sasuke’s fault, did he learn nothing from the Great Food Detentions from second year?”

“Right? I was going to grab the rice, but Sensei caught us first. Gotta move faster next time,” Sakura says, pursing her lips, “I’m kind of torn up, though. On one hand, it’s why we passed the test. On the other hand, it offends my pride to have such sloppy work on my team. Ugh, if it was Sasuke tied up, Naruto wouldn’t have left any rice on Sasuke’s face.”

“Pound him into the dirt during sparring, girl,” Ino says, nodding.

“If I can. He’s always so good at taijutsu, ugh. My team, Ino, my team,” Sakura grumbles, and slumps over flat onto the bed, “Anyways. So, yeah, my soulmate? Yeah, I met them day of team assignments, and now it’s classified because they’re kind of high-profile so I can’t actually tell you who. All I can do is complain about my team.”

“Sakura!” Ino jackknifes up to stare at her, because they’ve been best friends since they were five and Ino can practically read her mind with the barest of hints, “Are you serious? Are you saying your soulmate’s a master _teamaker_?”

“I mean, I don’t think I’m allowed to say anything,” Sakura says, and lets herself fall back into Academy code with Ino, “Soooo - I’ll just say it was the awkwardest tea ceremony ever.”

“Better or worse than that one teamaker who went spare ‘cause he insisted ramen toppings didn’t count as food and tried to ban ramen but it was like, five kinds of illegal?”

“Not that messy,” Sakura says, squishing her face into Ino’s blanket, “But it was worse than that time with the awful tea-jam thing.”

“Oh my god, Sakura, that sucks so much, I’m so sorry,” Ino says. She reaches out to take Sakura’s hand, squeezing with sympathy, “Are you okay? Really? Like, I know you hoped for a lot from your soulmate.”

It’s an understatement. Ino and Sakura’s childhood sleepovers had been full of ideas and play-pretend about soulmates. Neither had grand delusions of a prince-like soulmate, especially since they’d already known Shikamaru was Ino’s, but it was fun to think about romance and love. They decided Shikamaru was going to grow up either to be a dashing gentleman and amazing ninja partner, or he was forever going to be Ino’s best guy friend and she’d fall in love with another. They dreamed that Sakura would sweep her soulmate off their feet into a whirlwind romance or an epic adventure to become legendary second-best friends. Her soulmate would be really cool and strong but also kind and gentle, a worthy match of the fantastic ninja Sakura was going to be. And those whispered secrets in the dark had been so precious to Sakura.

“It’s - I don’t really know,” Sakura confesses quietly, mouth twisting with uncertainty, “I know what I hoped for, but I was also trying to not expect too much, you know? Because you really never know, especially not with a mark like mine. And it’s not awful, but- ”

“But not what you wanted, either,” Ino finishes, looking at her with such soft eyes that Sakura suddenly wants to cry, “Well. I can’t fix anything, but - do you want a hug?”

“Sure,” Sakura says and lets Ino pull her in, shifting to duck under her chin. She takes shuddering breaths in the shelter of her best friend’s arms and blinks away tears as she tries to let go of her soulmate dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you ever do something and then just stare in the mirror and think what the heck did i even just do
> 
> Random commentary PrettyBoyKiller style, because I aspire to her writing and also I had too many thoughts:
> 
> 1\. Kakashi’s actually quite relieved his soulmate is Sakura. After, you know, his life, he’s been lowkey expecting a potential tragedy meeting.
> 
> 2\. I headcanon Gai can actually be pretty calm in private, particularly with Kakashi, who’s pretty quiet when he's not trolling (lowkey awkward turtle. ASSASSIN NINJA awkward turtle) and that the two of them deliberately troll everyone with their eternal rival challenges for fun and also just because they can.
> 
> 3\. I was going to write Kakashi all angsty because HIS LIFE but then apparently my brain was like nah let’s go for tragic life but mostly stable with a wobbly but functional support/coping system, but Sakura can angst a bit tho ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> 4\. There’s nothing wrong with dreaming of romance. (Neither is there something wrong with not dreaming of romance.) I think it’s a balance, though. If you’re only ever dreaming of romance, like that is your ultimate life goal and you pursue/focus on nothing else, it’s not exactly healthy.
> 
> 5\. Found Ino and Sakura so easy to write in comparison to Gai and Kakashi, I think because they’re teenage girls? And I was one not long ago. Their conversation is pretty much exactly like one I would have had with my friends when I was younger.
> 
> 6\. Friendship is so important guys. These babies deserve awesome, mutually loving and supportive friendships (also probably friendships are major major for this fic since I’ve never dated and thus tend to balk at writing romance)
> 
> 7\. Why is my characterization so inconsistent, how to write augh
> 
> 8\. Yeah, so I have this idea that academy classes get into so many shenanigans together. Like, they go to school together for years and it’s mostly the same homeroom the entire time? Of course they’re going to have games and inside jokes. They’re going to know each other's’ habits by sheer proximity. You can bet kids swapped names every time a substitute teacher walked in, and the whole class went with it cause ‘lying is good ninja practice, sensei!’
> 
> 9\. The food passing game totally started with Shika and Ino passing food to Choji in class. Cue various classmates bargaining and begging for snacks from them, and then from each other. And then because kids are hilarious, food challenges and various dares expanded it into a class-wide game.
> 
> 10\. Academy code is based on this thing that girls would do where I grew up - to talk in ‘code’ aka gossip in public, we’d just replace nouns till the world ended. Like, Susan is Strawberry and Jared was Pineapple and so on and so forth. Ninja academy has taken this and turned it into full blown code, also with a written version and probably a tap or basic handsign version. It probably won’t feature very much since I’m not great at making up code, but I headcanon that there are probably many variations based on grade and friend groupings and they update often to keep the teachers from cracking the code.
> 
> 11\. Wait since this is my fic, my headcanons are… fic canon. Right. Okay.
> 
> 12\. I've decided that Naruto was particularly good at using the code to circulate food in the classroom. Ramen, baby, ramen.


End file.
